She looked round with a jaundiced eye.

‘The furniture has not been replaced, I see,’ she said, without greeting either myself or Elizabeth. ‘I thought you would have put my sister’s furniture in the attic and replaced it with something of inferior workmanship.’

‘Your ladyship cannot think I would wish to spoil my own home,’ said Elizabeth.

‘Your home. Hah!’ said my aunt.

Elizabeth cast me a satirical glance, but making a determined effort she welcomed Lady Catherine, Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

‘We meet again,’ he said.

‘We do.’

‘And in happy circumstances. Darcy is a lucky man,’ he told her.

‘Darcy is no such thing,’ said my aunt. ‘He should have married Anne.’

Anne cast her eyes to the floor.

‘You had a good journey, I hope?’ Elizabeth asked her.

Anne raised her eyes a little but did not reply. I was struck by the difference in her demeanour from the last time I had seen her, and I thought of what my cousin had said, that she had much more spirit away from her mother.

‘Anne’s health is precarious. She never travels well,’ said my aunt.

‘But the journey was good,’ said Colonel Fitzwilliam.

‘Lady Catherine’s coach is comfortable, and the roads were not too bad.’

‘Let me show you to your rooms,’ said Elizabeth.

‘That is the housekeeper’s job,’ said Lady Catherine disdainfully.

‘Then I will ask Mrs Reynolds to show you the way,’ said Elizabeth. She turned to Anne. ‘Allow me to show you to your room,’ she said. ‘It is the room you always have. I asked Mrs Reynolds which one was yours.’

Anne cast a worried glance at her mother, but allowed Elizabeth to lead her upstairs. Jane went with them, whilst my aunt had to wait for Mrs Reynolds.

Colonel Fitzwilliam laughed. ‘Elizabeth is afraid of no one,’ he said, when Mrs Reynolds had taken Lady Catherine upstairs.

‘Of course not,’ said Bingley. ‘She married Darcy!

Though I think he is not quite so awful as he used to be.

Marriage suits him.’

‘It suits both of you. Perhaps I ought finally to take the step myself,’ said the Colonel.

Elizabeth rejoined us, and soon the other ladies found their way to the drawing-room. My aunt and Anne already knew Caroline and Louisa, and once the four of them had exchanged greetings, my aunt began to speak, only to break off as she heard another carriage arrive.

‘Who is this?’ she asked, glancing out of the window.

‘My aunt and uncle!’ cried Elizabeth, jumping up.

‘The uncle who is an attorney, or the uncle who lives in Cheapside?’ asked Lady Catherine contemptuously.

Elizabeth did not reply, but went forward to greet her guests as soon as they entered the room.

‘Elizabeth! How well you look,’ said Mrs Gardiner.

She was dressed fashionably, and had an air of style about her.

‘Positively blooming,’ added Mr Gardiner.

I saw that Elizabeth was pleased by the look of surprise on Caroline’s face. We exchanged glances, and our thoughts went back to the first time I had met the Gardiners, when I, too, had been pleasantly surprised.

There followed the usual conversation about the roads, and then talk of the Gardiner’s carriage led on to Elizabeth saying: ‘I have the phaeton and pair all ready for you, just as you requested. As soon as you feel like travelling again, we will take it round the park.’

‘A phaeton and pair? What is this? An equipage for an outing? I must have my share of the pleasure. I like a ride round the park of all things. I would have learned to drive if Sir Lewis had taught me, and I would have excelled at it,’ said Lady Catherine. ‘Sir Lewis told me so himself. You must let me know when you mean to go. I will come with you, and so will Anne.’

‘But there are only two seats,’ Elizabeth pointed out.

‘Then Anne and I will take the carriage.’

‘I am persuaded your ladyship will not like the expedition,’ said Elizabeth. ‘We will not only be going down by the river, we will also be going through the woods.’

‘What does that signify?’ demanded Lady Catherine.

‘The woods are my greatest pleasure. When my sister was alive, we drove there often.’

‘But, as your ladyship informed me at our last meeting, my presence has polluted them,’ said Elizabeth archly.

My aunt could think of no reply. I have never known her to be lost for words, and it was a welcome experience.

She was not to be bested, however, and after a minute she overcame her astonishment and said: ‘Your mother and sisters are coming, I understand?’

‘Yes, they are.’

‘All of them?’

‘Yes, all of them.’

‘What, even the one who ran off with the son of Darcy’s steward?’

‘Yes. Even Lydia,’ said Elizabeth gravely, but with a smile in her eye.

‘I hear your mother received her at Longbourn, after her scandalous behaviour. It cannot be true, of course.

The report must be false. No mother could endorse such infamy on the part of her daughter. She would immediately cast her off and leave her to suffer the consequences of her behaviour.’

In her estimation of Mrs Bennet’s character she was entirely wrong. Mrs Bennet arrived soon after her brother and his wife, and not only did she endorse Lydia’s behaviour, she gloried in it.

‘Lady Catherine, how good it is to see you again,’ she said as she made her curtsy. ‘It seems like only yesterday you were visiting us at Longbourn, bringing us word of Charlotte on your way through the village. If you had told me then what I know now, I should not have believed you. My Lizzy, to marry Mr Darcy! Of course, it is not to be wondered at. She has always been a very good sort of girl, quite her father’s favourite, and though Jane has more beauty, Lizzy has more wit, though of course I should not call her Lizzy any more, I should call her Mrs Darcy. Mrs Darcy! How well it sounds. And to think, she is the mistress of Pemberley! I knew she could not be so lively for nothing. Pemberley is a very fine house. I had no idea it would be quite so fine. Lucas Lodge is nothing to it, and it is even better than the great house at Stoke.

As for Purvis Lodge, it has the most dreadful attics, but Lizzy – Mrs Darcy – assures me that the attics at Pemberley are quite the best she has ever seen.’

‘I am sure she will give you a tour of them, if you ask her nicely,’ said Mr Bennet dryly, as he stepped forward and kissed Elizabeth. ‘How are you, Lizzy? You look well.’

‘I am well, Papa.’

‘Darcy is treating you well?’

‘Yes, he is.’

‘Good. Then I do not have to challenge him to a duel.’

‘I hope you will go fishing with me instead, sir,’ I said.

‘I will be glad to do so.’

‘And you, too, are included in the invitation, of course,’ I said to Mr Gardiner.

‘It will give me great pleasure.’

‘What do you think of my bonnet, Lizzy?’ asked Lydia, coming forward. ‘Is it not delightful? I got it yesterday.’

‘I thought you needed to economize,’ said Elizabeth.

‘I did,’ said Lydia. ‘There were three bonnets I liked in the shop, and I bought only the one.’

‘From all I have read, the practising of economy does not come naturally to females,’ said Mary. ‘They must study it diligently if they are not to let their expenditure exceed their income.’

‘Well said, Mary. Very well put,’ said Mrs Bennet. She turned to Colonel Fitzwilliam. ‘Such an accomplished girl. She reads I do not know how many books. She will make some lucky soldier an excellent wife.’

For the first time in my life, I saw my cousin nonplussed. He was not required to reply, however, for whilst Lydia went over to the mirror and began to admire herself, Mrs Bennet resumed her conversation.

‘When you drove away from us after your visit to Longbourn, Lady Catherine, I had no more idea of our being related than I had of the cat going to see the queen, but now we are family.’

‘Indeed we are not,’ said my aunt indignantly.

‘But yes! Your nephew is married to my daughter. That makes us cousins of a sort. My cousin, Lady Catherine!

How envious Lady Lucas was when I told her, for she is not a real lady of course, she was only made a lady when Sir William was given a knighthood, on account of an address he made to the king. She was plain Mrs Lucas before that, and her husband was in trade in Meryton. He gave it up when he was made Sir William, but birth shows.’

‘It does indeed,’ remarked Lady Catherine pointedly.

‘And this is the girl who ran off with the steward’s son?’ she demanded, turning to Kitty.

‘No, I am not,’ said Kitty, blushing.

‘This is my second youngest, Kitty,’ said Mrs Bennet.

‘Such a good girl! Such manners! And in the way to becoming a beauty. She will turn heads before she is much older, mark my words. Not that she has not already done so. Captain Denny was very taken with her, and there were one or two other officers who singled Kitty out, though she is so young, but –’

‘It cannot be you,’ said Lady Catherine, cutting across Mrs Bennet and turning to Lydia. ‘You are a child.’

Lydia did not turn round but, having removed her bonnet, fluffed her curls in front of the mirror.

‘La! What nonsense you do speak!’ she declared. ‘I have been married these four months. My dear Wickham and I were married in September. I am quite the matron.’

She turned round and faced Lady Catherine. ‘I am so pleased to meet you,’ she said, extending her hand as though she was a duchess and my aunt a farmer’s wife.

‘My dear Wickham’s told me all about you.’